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A.  DDRES  S 


SENATOR     O.     M.     PLATT, 

of  Meriden,  Conn., 

To  the  Survivors  of  trie 

Fifteenth  Connecticut  Volunteers, 

Rt  the  Dedication  of  their  MonUrrierit, 

AT 

Newbern,    N.   C. 


November  14,  1894. 


Address. 


Survivors   of  the  Fifteenth   Regiment: 

This  occasion  has  a  meaning  for  you  to  which  only  one  who  has 
a  right  to  speak  the  sacred  word  "  comrade"  can  give  fitting  utter- 
ance, and  it  were  better,  I  think,  that  I  should  testify  to  my  interest 
in  what  is  passing  here  by  my  silence.  But  two  companies  of 
your  regiment  were  recruited  in  the  city  of  my  home,  from  among 
my  friends  and  companions.  I  know  them  intimately.  I  knew 
their  worth,  their  courage,  their  sense  of  duty,  their  patriotism,  their 
devotion.  I  saw  them  when  they  enlisted,  in  camp,  and  when 
they  marched  away  to  the  front.  I  can  testify  to  their  nobility  of 
character,  to  their  love  of  country,  to  their  self-abnegation,  and 
though  it  was  not  your  fate  to  be  engaged  in  as  many  battles  as 
some  of  our  Connecticut  regiments,  from  my  knowledge  of  those 
who  went  from  homes  that  stood  near  my  own,  I  am  prepared  to  say 
that  no  braver  body  of  men,  no  men  of  higher  character,  no  nobler 
citizens  left  the  State  of  Connecticut  to  defend  the  Union  than 
those  who  marched  with  the  Fifteenth  Regiment  upon  its  organiza- 
tion. I  would  not  single  out  for  special  praise  an  individual,  but  I 
may  be  permitted  to  say  that  I  think  that  the  man  who  first  enlisted 
as  a  member  of  your  regiment  was  a  type  of  all ;  and  the  recruiting 
of  Company  A  comes  back  to  my  mind  at  this  hour  as  clearly  and 
distinctly  as  if  it  were  but  yesterday.  A  meeting  had  been  called 
in  Meriden  from  which  two  full  companies  had  already  gone,  not 
counting  men  scattered  through  different  regiments  and  companies, 
or  those  who  served  three  months.  The  poster,  a  copy  of  which 
you  have  preserved  in  the  written  history  of  your  regiment,  breathes 
.    the    spirit   of  the    hour.       In    the    afternoon    which   preceded  that 

to 


meeting,  my  associate  and  friend,  Julius  Bassett,  came  to  see  me 
and  talk  of  what  he  felt  was  his  duty  to  enlist.  I  shall  never  forget 
that  conversation.  He  was  a  man  who  had  no  ambition,  no  desire 
for  distinction,  no  thought  of  self.  The  life  of  the  soldier  had  no 
allurement,  but  he  was  a  patriot  in  every  fiber  of  his  being.  The 
ties  which  bound  him  to  home  were  strong.  His  domestic  obliga- 
tions might  well  have  been  his  excuse  for  remaining  at  home.  He 
was  calm,  passionless,  and  thoughtful,  but  he  felt  that  the  call  was 
to  him,  that  a  country  in  peril  needed  his  help.  He  talked  it  all 
over,  the  dangers,  the  hardships,  the  probabilities  that  he  might  not 
return,  and  I  well  remember  his  concluding  remark  :  "  If  men  must 
give  their  lives  for  their  country,  I  may  as  well  give  mine  as  any 
one.  I  shall  enlist  to-night."  When  the  call  for  volunteers  came 
that  evening,  he  walked  to  the  table  where  the  roll  was  to  be  signed, 
without  hesitation,  without  remark,  without  visible  excitement, 
simply  wrote  his  name  and  retired  to  his  seat.  You  knew  him  as  a 
comrade  ;  vou  know  what  a  sterling  man  he  was,  and  yet  he  was 
but  one  of  a  noble  band,  a  type  of  the  regiment.  First  to  enlist  in 
the  regiment,  fated  to  meet  his  death  by  the  bullet  of  the  enemy, 
I  think  we  may  honor  him  to-day  with  special  mention  ;  and  if  in 
that  other  land  where  he  has  gone  he  can  be  permitted  to  know 
what  passes  here,  I  am  glad  to  send  him  greeting  and  an  assurance 
that  what  he  did  is  not  forgotten,  but  is  honored  in  the  hearts  of  the 
friends  and  comrades  he  has  left  behind. 

The  reputation  and  fame  which  came  to  corps,  divisions,  bri- 
gades, and  regiments,  the  glory  of  being  victors  on  hard-fought 
fields,  was  often  accidental.  The  most  heroic  resistance  at  times 
was  only  rewarded  by  capture  and  prison.  Conspicuous  success 
was  often  achieved  as  much  by  good  fortune  as  by  determined 
bravery.  And  though  other  regiments  participated  in  more  engage- 
ments and  rejoiced  in  more  triumphs,  yet  all  who  knew  the  com- 
position and  character  of  the  Fifteenth  Regiment  will  measure  its 
worth  and  sound  its  praises  equally,  at  least,  with  that  accredited 
to  any  other  Connecticut  regiment. 

You  come  here  to-day  as  veterans,  not  to  exult  over  the  victory 
won,  not  to  magnify  services  rendered,  not  even  to  glorify  the  deeds 
of  vour  comrades,  but  to  dedicate  this  memorial  stone  which  a  grate- 


ful  State  erects  to  show  that  those  who  went  from  home  and  returned 
not  are  still  remembered,  and  will  be  remembered  while  this  gran- 
ite stands  uncrumbled. 

Thirty  years  of  peace  have  smoothed  over  the  deep  furrows  of 
war,  and  to  the  praise  of  the  God  of  all  Peace  be  it  said,  have 
smoothed  over  the  passions  of  the  conflict.  But  the  sense  of  obliga- 
tion to  the  soldier  lives  on  and  will  live  while  written  history 
remains.  The  passing  of  a  generation  makes  it  impossible  for  men 
who  were  unborn  or  were  but  children  when  the  strife  began  and 
ended,  to  conceive,  much  less  to  understand,  what  was  involved  in 
the  sudden  change  from  a  citizen  to  a  soldier.  How  the  man  of 
business,  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  the  clerk,  gave  up  the  farm,  the 
shop,  and  the  store,  and  devoted  the  best  years  of  life  to  the  un- 
wonted task  of  defending  their  country.  Such  a  giving  up  of  self, 
and  such  a  surrender  of  all  for  the  good  of  all,  illustrates  the  high- 
est phase  of  human  character.  They  were  not  hireling  soldiers,  who 
stood  by  the  flag,  the  Union,  our  country  and  its  destiny — they  were 
men  of  high  resolve,  of  great  hearts,  of  set  purpose,  heroes,  every 
orie  as  truly  as  those  who  have  wrought  their  names  in  the  high 
places  of  our  history.  To-day  with  peaceful  surroundings,  with 
quiet  lives  and  a  united  country,  for  whose  prosperity  and  glory  all 
are  anxious,  with  no  speck  of  war  in  the  distance,  no  rancor  or 
trouble  in  our  hearts,  we  cannot  understand  it.  The  American 
soldier  must  always  remain  the  study  and  the  mystery  of  mankind. 
He  was  faithful,  obedient,  self-sacrificing,  heroic,  grand.  War  is 
always  far-reaching  in  its  results,  but  no  result  of  the  war  was 
grander  or  more  enduring  than  teaching  mankind  the  true  charac- 
ter of  American  citizens.  Citizenship  means  more  to  us  and  to 
mankind  because  of  the  magnificent  qualities  developed  in  our 
volunteer  soldier.  The  standard  of  humanity  is  higher  to-day  the 
world  over  as  a  consequence  of  the  transformation  of  the  peaceful 
citizen  into  the  heroic  soldier.  Liberty  and  freedom  have  always 
found  such  defenders,  but  none  more  worthy  of  praise  and  the 
admiration  of  mankind. 

The  personal  aspects  of  the  war  have  in  a  large  measure  given 
way  to  the  historical.  The  daily  life  of  the  individual  volunteer, 
officer,  or  private,  his  valor,  his  hardships,  his  endurance,  his   dis- 


couragements  and  his  exaltation  have  become  so  blended  that  the 
men  of  to-day  express  it  all  when  they  speak  of  the  soldier  in  general 
terms,  and  of  his  patriotic  service.  They  have  come  to  regard  you 
who  gather  here  to  perform  this  sad  yet  pleasing  service  as  you  in 
1862  regarded  the  veterans  of  the  war  of  1S12.  As  the  years  roll 
on  and  yonr  ranks  grow  thin,  and  you  at  last  melt  away  into  the 
unknown,  your  efforts  in  defense  of  your  country  will  be  cherished 
and  regarded  as  you  cherish  and  regard  the  efforts  of  our  revolution- 
ary soldiers.  Though  time  has  touched  some  of  you  but  lightly,  you 
may  soon  be  addressed  in  the  words  spoken  by  Webster  to  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  Revolution,  "  Venerable  men,  you  have  come  down  to 
us  from  a  former  generation."  But  I  am  glad  to  believe  that  the 
sense  of  obligation  does  not  lessen  with  the  passing  of  years,  or  the 
merger  of  the  individual  in  the  whole  army.  You  and  your  cotem- 
poraries  will  never  forget  the  individual  soldier.  To  us  he  is  a 
personal  hero  and  always  will  be.  We  can  never  look  in  the  face 
of  the  man  who  stood  before  the  rain  of  shot  and  shell  and  whizzing 
bullet,  his  life  a  willing  offering  on  his  country's  altar,  and  forget 
that  we  look  upon  a  hero.  But  as  years  take  us  faither  and  farther 
from  the  scenes  of  the  conflict  it  will  be  the  army  rather  than  the  in- 
dividual soldier  which  will  be  remembered  especially  by  those  who 
come  after  us.  What  the  spirit  '76  was  to  you  when  your  country 
called  you,  the  spirit  of '61  will  be  to  your  posterity  in  the  future 
days  when  the  country  may  again  call  for  defenders.  The  personal 
experience  of  the  soldier  now  so  interesting  and  so  thrilling,  the 
share  which  each  individual  took  in  the  conflict  and  its  result  will 
be  blended  with  the  deeds  of  all  who  faced  danger,  risked  life, 
mourned  defeat,  or  rejoiced  in  success. 

We  define  patriotism  as  a  love  of  country,  that  overmastering 
love  greater  than  the  love  for  home,  or  wife,  or  child,  or  life  itself. 
But  no  one  truly  measures  the  meaning  of  patriotism  who  does  not 
see  and  understand  how  closely  the  love  of  the  fathers  is  associated 
with  the  love  of  country.  Indeed,  our  love  of  country  is  our  love  of 
the  fathers — what  they  did,  what  they  wrought ;  it  is  the  heritage 
they  left  us  which  stimulates  patriotism  in  the  man  of  the  present. 
It  is  a  mystic  sentiment  deeply  ingrained  in  human  nature,  this  love 
of  the  fathers,  amounting   almost  to  ancestor  worship.      When  the 


voice  of  patriotism  breaks  forth  in  its  noblest  strain,  it  is  in  wor- 
shipful praise  of  the  deeds  of  our  ancestors.  It  is  the  "  land  where 
our  fathers  died"  to  which  we  give  our  allegiance,  and  our  native 
land  would  scarcely  be  worth  the  surrender  of  life  if  it  were  not  for 
the  "  green  graves  of  our  sires."  As  to  the  Roman,  the  hearthstone 
was  the  abiding  place  of  his  departed  ancestor,  so  that  around  its 
fires  and  ashes  the  family  was  perpetuated,  so  the  graves  of  our 
fathers  who  fell  in  defense  of  their  country  are  the  rallying  points  of 
national  life.  Those  of  your  comrades  who  have  gone  before  are 
now  reverenced  as  being  gathered  to  their  fathers,  and  as  one  by 
one  you  shall  take  your  place  beside  them,  you  will  join  that  great 
body  of  ancestors,  the  memory  of  whose  deeds  will  forever  kindle 
patriotic  flame  in  the  hearts  of  future  citizens. 

The  Republic  is  not  ungrateful.  Connecticut  is  not  ungrateful. 
The  men  of  to-day  who  know  nothing  of  the  great  contest,  except  as 
they  have  read  the  record  of  the  time  in  which  you  were  actors,  are 
not  ungrateful.  Your  achievement  is  their  glorious  heritage,  and  if 
they  seem  less  regardful  of  your  individual  service  than  those  who 
knew  of  your  enlistment,  who  saw  you  march  away  and  followed 
your  every  movement  with  interest  and  anxiety,  who  gave  you  all 
the  sympathy  of  their  hearts,  who  upheld  at  home  the  cause  you 
maintained  in  the  field,  do  not  for  the  moment  indulge  in  the  thought 
that  the  present  generation  is  ungrateful  to  the  soldier.  As  you 
revere  and  honor  the  soldiers  of  the  Republic  who  fought  its  battles 
before  you  were  born,  so  the  men  and  women  who  have  come  upon 
the  stage  since  you  put  down  the  rebellion  revere  and  honor  you, 
As  you  ascribe  to  the  efforts  of  our  early  soldiers  your  privilege  of 
participating  in  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  a  free  government, 
so  they  ascribe  to  your  efforts  and  heroism  their  privilege  of  living 
in  an  unparalled  Nation.  I  suppose  the  veteran  soldier  of  the  Rev 
olution  as  the  years  rolled  away  and  the  country  grew  in  its  strength 
and  grandeur  and  he  came  to  realize,  as  he  had  a  right  to  realize, 
that  men  and  women  who  made  no  sacrifice,  who  gave  nothing  to 
achieve  liberty,  were  enjoying  the  fruits  of  his  sacrifice  and  suffer- 
ing, must  have  had  sad  moments  in  which  he  felt  that  what  he  had 
done  was  scarcely  appreciated.  It  was  not  so,  however  ;  it  is  not  so. 
The  soldier  who  fought  at  Bunker  Hill  or    Trenton  or  Yorktown 


was  not  forgotten  ;  he  never  will  be.  All  that  he  did  and  suffered, 
whether  he  was  laid  to  rest  in  an  unknown  grave  or  came  back  to 
the  peaceful  scenes  of  his  time,  was  woven  into  his  country's  life  and 
his  country's  giory,  and  will  have  the  admiration  of  his  descendants 
to  remotest  time.  Nor  is  the  soldier  who  fought  here  and  in  the 
war  for  the  Union  forgotten.  He  never  will  be.  New  generations 
may  lose  sight  of  the  individual  in  their  admiration  for  all  who  par- 
ticipated in  the  contest,  but  the  memory  of  the  soldier  will  live  ;  his 
crown  of  honor  is  imperishable  and  fadeless,  and  gathers  added 
glory  and  wealth  as  the  years  roll  on. 

The  Nation  to-day  erects  monuments  which  proclaim  the  praise  it 
bestows  on  the  men  of  the  Revolution,  which  mark  its  heroic  battle- 
fields. The  States  have  already  begun  the  work  of  erecting  monu- 
ments which  shall  speak  to  all  the  future  of  the  worth  and  devotion 
of  the  men  who  went  out  from  the  States  to  save  the  Nation  ;  and 
more  and  more  as  time  goes  on  will  granite  shaft  and  bronze  statue 
voice  the  Nation's  appreciation  of  the  patriotic  devotion  of  its  de- 
fenders. 

We  erect  monuments,  not  to  the  living,  but  to  the  dead.  A  cen- 
tury from  now  the  State  and  Nation  will  still  be  seeking  some  way 
in  which  to  testify  an  increasing  regard  for  the  men  who  saved  the 
Union  from  dissolution,  who  made  its  flag  one  flag,  and  its  bound- 
aries to  encompass  one,  only  one,  country.  Heroism,  achievements, 
sacrifice  are  the  grand  fruitage  of  humanity,  worthy  of  all  honor  ; 
but  grander  yet  and  worthy  of  supreme  honor  is  patriotism.  The 
great  significance  of  this  day  and  occasion  is  that  the  living  patriot- 
ism of  our  State  honors  the  dead  patriots  who  rest  here  forever,  and 
honors  not  only  them  but  their  comrades  and  brothers  who  in  this 
sacred  presence,  in  this  still  resting-place  of  the  dead,  mourn  them 
as  fallen  companions  and  dearlv  cherished  associates  I  firmly 
believe  that  no  patriotic  impulse  is  ever  wasted  or  forgotten,  but 
lives  on  to  swell  forever  that  love  of  freedom  and  country  and  of 
ancestors  which  shall  at  last  redeem  mankind  from  all  bondage  and 
usher  in  the  day  of  universal  brotherhood.  These  your  fallen  com- 
rades were,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word,  patriots,  and  a  patriot's 
grave  can  never  lose  its  power.  Known  or  unknown,  marked  or 
unmarked,  neglected  or  tenderly  cared  for,  there  comes  from  it  an 


inspiration  subtle  and  unseen,  which  nerves  the  living  to  devotion 
and  duty-  Men  may  achieve  greatness  in  many  walks  of  life. 
Costly  monuments  or  splendid  mausoleums  may  mark  their  resting- 
place,  but  the  patriot's  unmarked  grave  has  a  power  which  no  other 
grave  can  equal.     It  is  akin  to  the  power  of  an  endless  life. 

Yet  to  you  and  to  me  who  knew  these  departed  ones  in  life,  how 
different  the  emotions.  Every  grave  wakens  a  train  of  sleeping 
memories  and  revives  in  your  mind  the  scenes  through  which  you 
passed,  the  associations  which  you  enjoyed,  the  trials  which  you 
shared.  You  can  trace  your  regimental  history,  your  soldier  life  as 
it  was  taken  step  by  step  with  the  men  whose  inanimate  bodies  rest 
here.  You  enlisted  with  them.  You  learned  your  soldierly  duties 
in  the  same  camp  of  instruction.  You  performed  with  them  the 
routine  work  of  army  life.  You  camped  and  bivouacked  with 
them.  With  them  you  marched  and  fought,  with  them  you  en- 
dured sickness  and  pain.  In  a  word,  you  were  "comrades."  Is 
there  a  term  in  all  our  language  which  signifies  so  much  of  manly 
regard,  of  unselfish  friendship,  as  that  same  word  "comrade?" 
Around  it  must  cluster  the  dearest  recollections  of  life,  the  sweetest 
experience  of  friendship,  the  most  vivid  and  thrilling  emotions  ever 
known.  Life  was  no  sweeter  to  you  than  to  them  ;  but  if  your  fate 
had  been  to  battle  with  the  unseen  foe  disease,  you  would  have 
fought  the  battle  as  bravely  and  succumbed  as  uncomplainingly 
when  conquered. 

Other  regiments  may  maik  with  their  monuments  positions  on 
battle-fields  where  their  comrades  met  the  enemy  in  a  fierce  and 
deadly  struggle  to  retain  their  position  and  beat  the  enemy  back 
from  the  field.  These  your  comrades  battled  with  the  death  angel 
on  a  field  which  they  would  have  gladly  abandoned  but  from  which 
there  was  no  retreat;  their  struggle  involved  no  passion,  none  of 
the  accessories  of  battle  strife  bore  them  up,  no  word  of  command, 
no  cheer  of  comrades,  no  bugle  note,  no  drum,  no  sound  of  cannon 
or  rattle  of  musketry  to  lift  them  out  of  themselves  and  to  inspire 
them  to  heroic  deeds,  but  in  silence  and  in  darkness,  alone  with 
themselves,  and  with  the  invisible  destroyer,  far  from  the  homes  of 
love,  uncheered  and  unattended,  they  met  their  foe  and  their  fate. 
Bravery  that  storms  the  entrenchments  of  the  enemy,  or  holds  our 
own  against  the  wild  and  reckless  charge,  makes  our   nerves  tingle 


8 

and  our  souls  expand.  We  almost  envy  the  fate  of  the  soldier 
whose  life  ebbs  away  with  the  shout  of  triumph  ringing  in  his  ear, 
but  we  bow  our  heads  in  silence  as  we  think  of  the  greater  bravery, 
the  more  heroic  death  of  those  who  never  faltered  in  their  conflict 
with  the  "  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness,  and  the  destruction 
that  wasteth  at  noon-day."  All  honor  to  them  in  their  silent  strug- 
gle. All  honor  to  their  noblest  courage.  We  uncover  before  them 
this  day  as  we  commemorate  their  unheralded  heroism. 

Veterans,  your  regiment  is  divided.  Many  of  its  members  have 
been  detailed  for  the  service  beyond.  You  who  remain,  who  have 
come  from  far-away  homes  that  you  may  in  spirit  again  touch 
elbows  with  fallen  comrades,  do  but  wait  the  summons  to  the  final 
complete  reunion  and  the  muster  for  unending  service  under  the 
banner  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  There,  merit  will  never  be  unob 
served  ;  there,  heroism  will  receive  its  abundant  reward. 

From  primeval  days  till  now  the  desire  of  mankind  to  voice  its 
regard,  its  affection,  its  reverence  for  the  dead  has  found  expression 
in  the  monument,  the  voiceless  yet  ever-speaking  monument.  First 
the  rude  stone-heap,  then  the  rough  pillar,  the  plain  slab,  the 
hewn  and  pictured  obelisk,  the  polished  shaft,  and  sculptured  tomb. 
Thus  man  speaks  to  those  who  follow  him  and  tells  them  of  de- 
parted friends  and  of  noble  deeds.  The  monument  is  a  necessity. 
Without  it,  our  testimony  would  cease  with  the  voice  and  the  perish- 
able written  or  printed  record  ;  by  means  of  it,  our  testimony  is  pre- 
served. Thus  we  honor  the  virtues  of  our  ancestors.  Thus  the 
State,  uniting  the  sentiment  of  its  people,  proclaims  its  love  for  those 
who  gave  their  lives  for  the  general  good.  If  we  might  not  thus 
enduringly  voice  our  affection  for  those  we  have  known  and  loved 
and  lost,  we  should. be  poor  indeed.  Our  great  want  is  to  tell  the 
future  of  our  Iriends,  our  heroes.  The  monument  supplies  this 
deepest  want.  It  speaks  for  us.  Its  voice  is  ours.  Who  journeys 
here  and  looks  upon  this  monument,  reads  its  inscription,  and  sees 
graven  upon  it  the  flag  with  its  undimmed  stars,  the  musket,  the 
knapsack,  and  the  canteen  will  hear  repeated  the  story  of  our  sorrow 
and  our  reverence.  So  to-day,  for  your  State  and  all  in  your  State, 
you  set  this  stone  in  earth  that  it  may  speak  our  love  for  those  who 
gave  life  and  all  for  us,  of  our  pride  in  their  deeds.  We  can  do  no 
more,  words  fail,  but  this  stone  for  all  time,  shall  speak. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032758249 


FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


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